Chairing the 79th meeting of the Jammu University Council here at the Raj Bhavan today, Governor N.N. Vohra, Chancellor, and Chief Minister Mufti Mohd. Sayeed, Pro Chancellor of the University, urged the VCs of Jammu and Kashmir Universities to take all necessary steps to upgrade the teaching and research work in their institutions and particularly stressed the need to ensure timely declaration of the results of Under Graduate and Post Graduate examinations and to sensitively watch the interests of the students.To ensure quality education in the Universities the Chancellor advised the VCs to undertake regular reviews of the relevance of the courses being taught in their Universities. Both the VCs were advised to undertake joint reviews by involving all the stakeholders.
While reviewing the ongoing and proposed research projects of the University, the Chancellor, Pro Chancellor and Mr. Naeem Akhter, Minister for Education, urged the Council to undertake research which is useful to the society and deals with the local problems. They emphasized the need for an annual review of all research activities, against pre-determined parameters, to critically assess the quality of work being done in the Universities. The Governor advised the Vice Chancellors not to compromise on internal standards in awarding Ph. D degrees.While reviewing the annual calendar of the academic and co-curricular activities, the Chancellor advised that the annual calendar should be circulated to all the affiliated colleges of the Universities. The Chief Minister suggested bringing out an annual sports calendar with focus on sports competitions amongst the State Universities, apart from the national and international sports events.The Chief Minister advised the Universities to urgently initiate work for developing Information Technology Parks with enhanced focus on training girl students in IT related jobs. He also directed them to come up with Model Institutes for Skill Development so that the skills relating to the traditional crafts could be upgraded as per the present market requirements.
The Chief Minister underscored the need to introduce courses for personality development of the students and short term vocational courses relating to tourism industry and other sectors. He particularly stressed the need to develop effective communication skills to meet the requirement of the job markets. The Governor advised the Council to link personality development courses with the placement cells to advance the interest of the youth.The Council also reviewed the to-date status of implementation of Choice Based Credit System at the Post Graduate level. The Governor stressed its early introduction at the Under Graduate level.The Council ratified introduction of the Post Graduate Diplomas in “Banking and Risk Management” and “Accounting and Finance” in the Department of Commerce under self financing in collaboration with National Stock Exchange w.e.f the academic session 2015-16. It also ratified adoption of National Council for Teacher Education (Recognition Norms and Procedure) Regulations, 2014, notified by the National Council for Teacher Education pertaining to the existing Teacher Education Programmes of the University, and adoption of the Statutes & Scheme for the two year B.Ed. and M.Ed. Courses, 2015 as per recommendations of the Justice Verma Commission and NCFTE.The Council noted introduction of regular B.Ed. Course in the Bhaderwah Campus of the Jammu University, it also approved the implementation of SRO-232 issued by the State Finance Department for providing Child Care Leave.
Prof. R.D Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Jammu University, made a power point presentation and dwelt, interalia, on the status of various ongoing research and infrastructure related projects and those in the pipeline, achievements of the University in varied fields since the last meeting of the Council, introduction of various new courses, status of filling up teaching and non-teaching positions in the University etc.Present in the meeting were Prof. Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi, Vice Chancellor, Kashmir University; Mr. B.R. Sharma, Chief Secretary; Mr. Navin K. Choudhary, Commissioner Finance; Ms. Sarita Chouhan, Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education Department; Prof.Vinayshil Gautam; Prof Rajni Dhingra, Dean Faculty of Sciences, JU; Prof. Kiran Bakshi, Principal, Govt. College for Women, Gandhi Nagar; Prof. J.P. Singh Joorel, President, Jammu University Teachers Association; Dr. Sanjay Verma, President, College Teachers Association, Jammu Wing; and Prof. Keshav Sharma, Registrar, Jammu University.